Lucky great gran scoops £4.3 million

A lucky great grandmother who scooped a massive £4.3 million on the lottery celebrated by splashing out on a new pair of slippers.

Jane Lewis, from Sowerby Bridge, won her share of a life changing £12.9 million in the Lotto quadruple rollover draw on Wednesday, June 17.

The retired seamstress, who used to work at SR Gents in Halifax, has played the same two lines on Lotto since it launched.

But following her intuition, she decided to buy five Lucky Dips from the Sowerby Bridge Tesco store, a break in tradition which would change her life forever.

Mother-of-five Jane, 69, said: “I’ve never bought a Lucky Dip before and never on a Wednesday, I always put my numbers on Monday without fail, but I had this strange sense that I needed to buy this ticket.

“I don’t know why I went into the shop and thought to get a Lucky Dip, I thought ‘I’ve just bought five Lucky Dips, that’s £10 out of my pension, it’s a lot’.”

That night, Jane, who has eleven granchildren and one great grandchild, sat down to check her numbers and found she had matched all six main numbers - 2, 8, 12, 15, 21 and 42.

Her first call was to one of her five sons to confirm that she had hit the jackpot.

“I gave my boy a fright calling so late at night, he thought something terrible had happened,” Jane said.

“When I told him I thought I had won the lottery there was just silence at the other end of the line. He came straight round and we checked the numbers together, we fell into fits of giggles.

“You just can’t believe it when it happens, you just keep looking and you never think it could happen to you.

“I had to keep checking, it didn’t really sink in.”

But despite her massive win, the first thing Jane bought was a pair of £18 slippers from Marks and Spencer.

Jane, originally from Bootle, Liverpool, added: “I got the bus into town to buy a new pair of slippers I’d had my eye on for a while and had been saving up for.

“It was nice to buy them and not have to think i’ll have to save up or think about how much they cost.”

Also at the top of Jane’s shopping list is a home of her own and a headstone for her son, who passed away more than 40 years ago.

Jane added: “I’ve rented a little one bedroom place for the last 11 years and I’d like another bedroom so family can come and stay. I bake a lot, and am always whipping up a cake or two for friends’ birthdays or when people pop over – so it will be lovely to have a home with more space.

“For me, this win really means that I have peace of mine, my family don’t ever have to worry about money again. It won’t change me, I’ll still do my shopping in the same place, I haven’t even checked my bank yet. I’m just me, with noughts in my bank.”